Vann Van Diepen, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation, said Iran was still “very actively” creating front companies and engaging in other activity to conceal procurements.

Asked if he had seen a change in Iranian procurement behavior in the past six to 12 months, a period that has seen a cautious thaw in U.S.-Iranian relations after decades of hostility, Van Diepen replied: “The short answer is no.

“They still continue very actively trying to procure items for their nuclear program and missile program and other programs,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“We continue to see them very actively setting up and operating through front companies, falsifying documentation, engaging in multiple levels of trans-shipment … to put more apparent distance between where the item originally came from and where it is ultimately going.”

At this point I don’t know why they even bother hiding their activities.

The reported supplies do not contravene last year’s breakthrough agreement between Tehran and six world powers to curb its most sensitive atomic activity in exchange for some limited easing of sanctions damaging its economy.

But such trade would breach a 2006 U.N. embargo banning the provision by any nation to Iran of materials related to its nuclear and missile development work.

Of course they don’t. Because the agreement is useless. It’s a paper shield for both sides. Obama gets to pretend that he isn’t deliberately letting Iran go nuclear and Iran gets to go nuclear.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

Texas Patriot

I just hope Iran keeps this up. What Obama is doing is laying a predicate for the eventual destruction of the Iranian nuclear weapons complex, and there is really no other way he could do it. Enter into an agreement in good faith, do everything required of you, document very carefully all the ways that Iran has not done what they have promised to do, and then either seek U.N. authorization to destroy the Iranian nuclear weapons complex (which would probably be a waste of time) or just go ahead and do it. But laying a predicate is the proper way of going about this.

Daniel Greenfield

What exactly has Obama done in his two terms in office that has convinced you that he is preparing to swoop in out of the sky and blow away the Iranian nuclear program

…and please don’t say the capture/kill operation of OBL. That wasn’t Obama, that was the SEALS

Texas Patriot

There are a number of things. The OBL operation may have been carried out by the SEALs, but Obama authorized it, and since it involved a military strike within the territory of a Muslim nation without their permission, I think it’s clear that authorization itself, without the approval of the United Nations or other political authority, took a fair amount of political courage. Likewise, Obama’s extensive drone operations against suspected terrorist operatives in Pakistan and elsewhere, widely considered to be illegal by many of those in his own political party, should be enough to alert us all to the fact that Obama is quite willing to operate far outside the Leftist/Islamist comfort zone. Otherwise, Obama has consistently maintained, at least since the Presidential campaign in 2008, that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that all options are on the table to prevent them from doing so. And, in that regard, senior members of his administration have consistently maintained that he is “not bluffing”

Do I think it is politically feasible to launch a ground war against Iran at a cost of possibly trillions of dollars and the loss of countless American and innocent Iranian lives? No, I don’t. But do I think it is possible that President Obama will launch a surgical strike to destroy the Iranian nuclear weapons complex? Yes, I do. And I will be surprised if he doesn’t.

Daniel Greenfield

Obama authorized it in order to dismantle the system of military trials for Al Qaeda terrorists. His long range goal wasn’t Osama, it was an end to the war footing.

Drone ops predate him. Like so much else he did, it was the Bush era policies on autopilot.

When Obama breaks with a Bush era policy, he invariably goes left.

Texas Patriot

We shall see. I think I previously offered to wager a cup of coffee regarding the outcome of this matter. Still think you’re right?

Daniel Greenfield

The real wager is millions of lives

Texas Patriot

Tell me about it. But what can you and I do? Let’s put it this way, Obama has an awesome responsibility to keep his word to the American people, the people of Israel, and the people of the world. From my perspective at this point in time, he’s going about it in precisely the right way.

Daniel Greenfield

Your perspective largely depends on the assumption that Obama is secretly planning to eventually do the right thing.

Texas Patriot

I really don’t think it’s such a secret. He has expressly promised (if not guaranteed), on numerous occasions, that Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and that all options are on the table to prevent them from doing so. He shouldn’t have to say it more than once.

Lynnz

What promises has Obama kept to the American people?

SCREW SOCIALISM

Actions speak louder than words.

There are ZERO signs that Fascist Iran has slowed down their nuclear plans – and back it up with yearly “death to america” fascist rallies.

All fascist iran does is play out the clock – for time to continue their nuclear project.

Obama bows to saudi kings. You think he won’t bow to ayatollahs too?

Habbgun

So you are saying we have to give a pass to the diplomacy to see what’s in it?

Texas Patriot

Habbgun: “:So you are saying we have to give a pass to the diplomacy to see what’s in it?”

I think you would be wise to avoid the knee-jerk response that it’s a sell-out by Obama, not to mention the National Enquirer style journalism of this website, including phony and obviously photoshopped images of Obama bowing to the Iranian mullahs, but of course you don’t have to do anything. Just don’t be too surprised if it turns out that Obama means every word he has said on this subject.

A Z

I’m reading biography of Cixi, the last dowager Empress, by the author of “Wild Swans”. The book is at time effusive in praise so one might wonder about the scholarship. I’ll have to judge when I read more material later form the time period concerning China and compare and contrast.

Cixi had big balls. Still there is a difference between what a person wants to do and can do. They are constrained by bureaucratic momentum. Reading the biography of an empire, kingdom or nation and look for that meme.

Bush intimated as much when he said no matter who got into the Whitehouse other people would make pretty much the same decisions him given the same information. I do not have the exact quote but you will know it if you ever come across it..

SCREW SOCIALISM

The US should deliver nuclear material to Fascist Iran – in the form of a fusion delivery device onto Tehran.

HANG the ayatollahs!

No RNC

Iran appears to be copying the Israel’s illegal methods in building a Nuke Weapons program….no wonder the Israelis are so pissed… right?

http://www.twitter.com/changeirannow Change Iran Now

As long as Rouhani can brazenly declare that he will not
dismantle a single centrifuge as part of a final agreement, the United States
Congress should proclaim that Iran will pay a steep price for its recklessness.
America’s elected representatives are not the problem; the unelected theocrats
of Iran are.

Ken

They photoshopped IN the banner Team Bush had to photoshop OUT. (snicker)